Qualitative Indicators of Labour Standards: Comparative Methods and Applications

ISBN-13: 9781402052002 / Angielski / Twarda / 2007 / 298 str.

David Kucera

Opis

Recent years have witnessed a rapidly growing interest in the use and construction of "qualitative" indicators of labour standards. This is likely attributable to several factors: the rise of "socially responsible" investment, ongoing debates on the effects of labour standards on international competitiveness, and the sense that traditional quantitative indicators of labour standards are too narrow in scope to adequately capture the wide-ranging and inherently qualitative nature of many aspects of labour standards. Qualitative indicators, while generally having numerical values, are based on such methods as grading by experts, the coding of legislation, and the coding of other textual sources addressing violations of a more de facto nature. Measuring compliance with labour standards is an undertaking intrinsically fraught with difficulty. For there are a number of possible sources of measurement error, both random and non-random, that are unique to such indicators, on top of those that affect qualitative and quantitative indicators alike. The growing use of qualitative indicators of labour standards thus raises a number of questions about comparative methods of construction as well as the appropriateness of particular methods for particular applications. This volume results from a seminar that was organized to address these and related questions.

Spis treści

1. Introduction and Overview, David Kucera (ILO).- 2. Indicators of Labour Standard: An Overview and Comparison, Richard Block.- 3. Country-level Assessments of Labor Conditions in Emerging Markets: An Approach for Institutional Investors, Dan Viederman and Erik Klett.- 4. Decent Work, Standards and Indicators, Monique Zarka-Martres and Monique Guichard-Kelly.- 5. The Quantification of Respect for Selected Core Labor Standards: Towards a Social Development Index?, Ludo Cuyvers and Daniel Van Den Bulcke.- 6. Measuring Trade Union Rights by Violations of These Rights, David Kucera.- 7. Taking Labour Laws to the Domestic Dentist: Measuring Countries' Compliance with International Labour Non-discrimination Standards, Miriam Abu Sharkh.- 8. Towards an Index of Core Rights Gaps, W.R. Böhning.- 9. Employment Protection in Industrialized Countries: The Case for New Indicators, Giuseppe Bertola, Tito Boeri and Sandrine Cazes.- 10. Measuring Concealed Rights Violations: The Case of Forced Labour, Patrick Belser, Michaelle de Cock and Farhad Mehran.- Index.

Blurb

Recent years have witnessed a rapidly growing interest in the use and construction of "qualitative" indicators of labour standards. Qualitative indicators, while generally having numerical values, are based on such methods as grading by experts, the coding of legislation, and the coding of other textual sources addressing violations of a more de facto nature. Measuring compliance with labour standards is an undertaking intrinsically fraught with difficulty. For there are a number of possible sources of measurement error, both random and non-random, that are unique to such indicators, on top of those that affect qualitative and quantitative indicators alike. The growing use of qualitative indicators of labour standards thus raises a number of questions about comparative methods of construction as well as the appropriateness of particular methods for particular applications. This volume results from a seminar that was organized by the International Labour Office (ILO) to address these and related questions, bringing together experts from the ILO, universities and NGOs.